Well output will not effect the render speed much. I would search on speeding up renders, render speed, etc. Seems to be lots in here go and have a gander :)

Well the short answer is I don't know. I have a wireless G setup that I don't use. As I understand it with network renders that use a job file, ie a file is created with the info about the render, then each node renders a frame and updates the job text file on what frame it has done, it does not matter to much since there is little communication, though they both still need to write the finished frame to the shared location. With Vue I don't know how it works, I think different methods need more of a pipe and some wireless networks drop packets etc...Maybe someone else can advise on this. Wireless is certianly far more expensive with USB cards about 50 or so a pop.

Well I have not used my network with Vue pro yet... But, I have used it with World Builder. Render times speed up more or less by the number of machines, since each takes frames from the job file and renders them. My main machine is P4 2.8 with geforce4256, the nodes are all Athlon 2.4's with 1gb ram and Nvidia onboard chips. Ideally they would be P4's but the expense meant I could get a another whole unit for the cost of P4's so I figured it would be better to have an extra machine. So there are 3 Athlons my main machine and an old Athlon 1.4. As I say speed is much improved with a 24 hour render taking only about 4 hours or so. I also use split rendering to render parts of each frame, not sure Vue supports this. Anyway, with Vue Pro it is easy to set this up (just not working yet). You just have to setup a network, I had problems with XP's wizards so ditched it for 2kpro. Once your Lan is set up you just need to install the rendercows on each machine. When you goto render just select hypervue and you will be asked to add the nodes or search for them. It will then render on those machines. The great thing about Vue Pro is that it will network render stills as well as animation. SO in short I am assumming it will speed up renders greatly in Vue, but due to the release problems I have not tested it. But on all my other 3d apps it increases speed roughly by the number of machines. It also gives you some backup, plus with Vue Pro you can plug in or remove machine hot as it were, during render. Your lap top should work and you should see an improvement. I would read up on networks first and get that setup and tested. It should be pretty easy. http://www.epinions.com/cmd-review-41D6-5C355BF-39FBC8A4-prod1 You really just need a couple of network cards and a crossover cable, you will need a hub if you want to add more than one machine. A network card can be had for 7 or so and a cable about the same. You could use a wireless network but these are pricey and with non job file rendering may prove unreliable. So I would stick with hard wired network. Hope that helps.

How long is a piece of string? :) Seriously it depends on what size and quality. Maybe give an idea what you are rendering and people can give a rough comparison. With systems, a good way to speed up, almost essential for animations imho, are a few extra machines. This will improve you speed dramatically, far more than extra ram etc. You can build little shuttle systems for a couple of hundred pounds with no monitors etc. Bare bones and a good cpu. I am guessing you are thinking it is taking a while to render your animation?

Hmm well on support they are saying that an update file was added to the root which you can run to update the render cows. Now having not known that I reinstlaled vue, now it says no updates avialable, so I reckon they have removed it for now....much weirdness. :)

I also reckon the rendercow problenm will require some new files to setup, since it says it auto updates all cows on network, but if they are not working it won't be autoupdating them. Anyway, I hope they sort this, network rendering is vital if this product is to be used professionally for any sort of animation. Now Vue Pro is not as expensive as say World Builder but it still cost me 500+ with postage, so I do hope they fix it very very soon. :)

Kuroyume, have you had any luck with getting the Rendercows to work? I tried the update but it does not seem to have fixed the issue with rendercows on 2k, 2kpro, etc I will try it agian and see if I can get them to work. i really hope they sort this as animation is near impossible without network rendering. :)

If you are not in Fedex will leave a note that you can sign and leave on door, they will then deliver without signature. My own copy came the morning it was shipped, left France in morning got to me at 9.45am :-)About 2 days from order, but that was with extra for quick delvery.

Yeah I agree, Vue has very limited number of plants. though you can make your own etc. But something like World Builder whos non net work version is the same price, but less if you are in UK, ships with dozens of plants. I have both adn each has advantages, though Vue Pro's network rendering doe snot work with win 2k at the moment, they are sorting it. Once thing vue cannot do is grass all over a large area, not with any descent results. They need to sortout more plants and get soem weather effects built in other than wind. :-) Not much to ask ;-) Other than that Vue pro seems great, a patch will be out soon I am told for the network rendering.

Yep its just for editing. I have similar setup to ninandji, though with 1.5ddr ram and Gef 255ddr and it crawls with opengl on, this in Vue pro. It is probably the card drivers though. If you are serious about using it you really need a workstation quality card I think. I just disable open gl and work in wireframes etc. :)